Suggestion regarding election forum

Crushing Our Enemies

Crushing Our Enemies

TNPer
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Discord
COE#7110
I suggest that when elections are ongoing, we move the election forum out of the agora onto the top level, at the top of magicality city. Once the election has ended, it would then be moved back to the agora.

The reasoning is that while it would be absurd for the elections forum to occupy a top slot when there is no election happening, it is also absurd for important elections to be buried under NS discussion, temple courts, and political party threads.
 
I support too, it seems like it could keep the Elections more noticeable above the shenanigans in he Agora.
 
Here's the deal though. Turnout has been extremely high, and there have been frequent special elections. I'm not sure there's even a need to play "follow the bouncing ball;" and the elections subforum is the first listed subforum in the Agora to begin with.

There are still complaints that there are too many first level forums, and have one bounce in and out of that level probable won't satisfy some.

I'm not sure this point is about something that is broken and needs fixing and perhaps it is better to leave well enough alone.
 
Is there any evidence at all that anyone has failed to vote in any election because they cannot find the voting floor?

If so, i have not heard about it.

this looks simply like giving admins another task for no tangible benefit. thanks for the suggestion, but no thanks.
 
Regularly scheduled elections have enjoyed large turnout of late. Turnout for special and runoff elections has been a lot lower. Also, voting is not the only metric here. There is also the number of candidates running, and participation in campaign threads to consider. I think both would be boosted by attracting more attention to the election forum.

I am not suggesting that the system is broken and needs fixing. I am suggesting that the system be improved.
 
Crushing Our Enemies:
Regularly scheduled elections have enjoyed large turnout of late. Turnout for special and runoff elections has been a lot lower. Also, voting is not the only metric here. There is also the number of candidates running, and participation in campaign threads to consider. I think both would be boosted by attracting more attention to the election forum.

I am not suggesting that the system is broken and needs fixing. I am suggesting that the system be improved.
Click to expand...
Keep in mind that the time period for nominations and voting in a special election is much shorter than regularly scheduled elections, and that probably has more to do with a lower nominee and voting level than the location of the Santorum.
In fact, I would say that since the Agora was set up, the election Subforum has been easier to find.
What the government might best do is make sure the events in the masthead are always up to date with the links. Then it won't matter that the nominations and voting threads are in a subforum of the Agora, it will only take a click in the masthead to reach.
Or the R.A. could lengthen the time period for nominations and voting in special elections. One of the side-effects of such short time periods is reduced turnout, and I don't think moving the subforum will solve that problem if people don't happen to log onto the forums during very short voting periods Not to mention that right now, it's a common vacation period in both hemispheres.
I don't think a very good case has been made for the bouncing ball, like I suggested before.
 
Grosse, the time period for special elections and regularly scheduled elections is already identical - 5 days for nominations and five days for voting.

Also, I'm not sure the newsbox is an effective communication tool. I couldn't tell you what's in it right now, because after thousands of page loads, I don't stick around to see what it says - I scroll straight past it and never look at it, and I imagine most users do the same. It's just several inches of filler between me and the content I'm trying to reach.
 
Elections used to be separate...then some suggested they not be. i wasn't a fan of that thought. let me see if i can find the discussion.

since then we've had record turnouts in some cases so i don't think the issue here is actually an issue.
 
Again, number of votes is not the only metric of participation in elections. I think that campaign threads and nomination threads have gotten less traffic than they should, especially in non-delegate elections. In voting threads, there is concerted effort by a number of interested parties to get citizens to turn out and vote, usually with direct links to the election forum or the voting thread itself. However, the election process as a whole does not get the same level of participation, in terms of questions for candidates, nominations, etc.
 
COE:
However, the election process as a whole does not get the same level of participation, in terms of questions for candidates, nominations, etc.
Click to expand...
It could be other factors though. Time of year, other NS/TNP obligations, or just plain disinterest. The last election (and so far the current one) candidates ran unchallenged. I'm not sure if it's because the elections forum is hard to notice, since voter turnout has been high. :shrug:

My :2c:
 
Falap, that is exactly my point - not enough candidates are running. If the election forum were featured more prominently during the nomination process, we might see more interest.
 
I agree with the suggestion to move the elections forum to be more visible on a temporary basis.

Turnout is not the issue, partly, I think, because ECs generally send out a PM reminding people to vote. But the last election, and this one so far as well, have been decidedly uncontested and that's not a good thing for democracy.
 
My issue with this is that when we tried to do this in the past, we ended up with it in Magicality City more or less permanently, as we'd forget to move it away.

Perhaps instead the EC can add PMing/TGing the citizen rolls about nominations, and not just voting, to the templates?
 
I remember when the election forum was moved to the agora, and I do not recall any attempt to have it rotate in and out of the top-level forum since then. How long ago was the attempt you're referencing?

Alternative idea: archive the elections forum and hold nominations/campaigns in the RA forum, and put the voting threads on the voting floor. It's only open to citizens anyway, right?
 
Now, there's an interesting idea.

Possible downside could be suppressing legislative activity in the RA at the same time, but that could go the other way as well if more people are checking that forum more regularly.

Doing this would necessitate giving the voting booth some mod powers in the RA areas as well, which may or may not be something the Speaker's Office is comfortable endorsing.
 
I would point out that no one has edited the news box to include the nominations thread for the special election, and there are quite a few government officials, including at least one of the election commissioners who have that access.

While COE, you may not look at that news box, I do, and the problems has been not keeping its content current. I'm not convince moving the elections subforum back and forth, much less with threads going into the R.A. makes much sense. The EC is intended to be independent of the existing branches, which is why it was put in the Agora, to accommodate having a place for political parties. The Agora, to use the RL American idiom is a "free speech" zone that leaves the government officials out of it, except for the election commissioners.
I do tire of seeing demands for big clubs to fix every problem especially when tools are already available that don't require it.
 
For something as important as the elections forum, I think we should approach its location less from the standpoint of where it thematically belongs (i.e. independent from branches of government, etc) and more from the standpoint of how we can best facilitate the elections. When an election is ongoing, it doesn't make sense for it to be in a subforum of the nationstates discussion area. Particularly when many voters are voting for the first time, we ought it have it somewhere easy to find and highly visible.

I think bouncing the forum to and from the main page meets that goal, and so does having it in the RA forum. Strictly speaking, holding elections in the RA forums would not require additionally admin work, aside from giving the voting booth moderator privileges over the RA areas and archiving the elections forum.

If the suggestion to move the election forum to the index during elections is dead-on-arrival with the admin team, then I will petition the government to find a solution that makes the elections forum more visible.
 
I don't think it's that hard to move the forum in and out as needed. If we forget for a few days after an election has concluded its not the end of the world. If it will see even greater voter turnout and more participation in campaigning I see it as win-win.
 
The case is that during an ongoing election, the election forum is just as important as any currently top-level forum, and needs the visibility, as evinced by the low numbers of candidates and participation in campaign threads.

The only elections with record turnouts are delegate elections. Judicial and special elections receive little attention by comparison.
 
Increasing the pool of candidates and voter turnout are important goals.

In a way it makes sense that Juducial and special elections have lower turnout than Delegate elections. It mirrors RL, at least in the US, where mid-term elections consistently have low voter turnout, and candidates at the local level often run unchallenged. One would expect uncontested races to spark less interest among voters. An exciting race, where an individual's vote really can make a difference, should produce a higher turnout. The candidates themselves often do the job of getting out the vote. So, voter turnout can be largely dependent on having two or more strong candidates in a race.

Now, how do we get more candidates to run? Special elections are challenging since they are largely unplanned. People have already committed to other responsibilities. But nominations from one's peers often works, as do PMs, IRC chats and other less formal means of encouragement. A more developed Party system could also ensure a full slate, though it would come with a different set of challenges..

As for the visibility of the Elections subforum, I am not convinced folks have trouble finding it now. I am sure it will be easier to find if it is a top-level forum. But I think I may get confused if it starts moving around. Like my phone, keys, TV remote... hey, I'm old; it happens. It might not be a problem for everyone else.

Anyway, this is the kind of tweak we could try, and if it doesn't work we can try something else. Like a big red neon flashing sign. A marching band. Dancing girls.
 
Mum, a lot of people use the most recent posts listed on the index page to guide them to the active parts of the forum. When the elections forum is a subforum of the agora, often an agora or temple courts topic will fill that spot on the index, causing fewer people to realize that an election is ongoing - especially during the nomination period of a special election. I think that is causing a lower rate of nominations, which contributes to a lack of candidates, and gives fewer people a reason to vote.
 
I would first try amending the Election Templates to include a PM to send to all Citizens when an election begins, inviting them to nominate candidates or put themselves forward.
 
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